Enhancing stability in cardiovascular disease risk prediction: A deep learning approach leveraging retinal images

Background: The retina provides valuable insights into vascular health within the body. Prior studies have demonstrated the potential of deep learning in predicting Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) risk using color fundus photographs. Purpose: To use fundus images to more consistently predict the World...

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Main Authors: Weiyi Zhang, Zhen Tian, Fan Song, Pusheng Xu, Danli Shi, Mingguang He
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2023-01-01
Series:Informatics in Medicine Unlocked
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352914823002125
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author Weiyi Zhang
Zhen Tian
Fan Song
Pusheng Xu
Danli Shi
Mingguang He
author_facet Weiyi Zhang
Zhen Tian
Fan Song
Pusheng Xu
Danli Shi
Mingguang He
author_sort Weiyi Zhang
collection DOAJ
description Background: The retina provides valuable insights into vascular health within the body. Prior studies have demonstrated the potential of deep learning in predicting Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) risk using color fundus photographs. Purpose: To use fundus images to more consistently predict the World Health Organization (WHO) CVD score and to address the problem of year-to-year fluctuations associated with the traditional CVD risk score calculation. Methods: Utilizing 55,540 fundus images from 3,765 participants with 6-year follow-up data, we designed a DL model named Reti-WHO based on the Swin Transformer to predict CVD risk regression scores. Multiple regression and classification metrics such as coefficient of determination (R2-score), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), sensitivity and specificity were employed to assess the accuracy of the Reti-WHO. Significance differences between WHO CVD scores and Reti-WHO scores were also assessed. Vessel measurements were employed to interpret the model and evaluate the association between Reti-WHO and vascular conditions. Results: The deep learning model achieved good classification and regression metrics on the validation set, with an R2-score of 0.503, MAE of 1.58, sensitivity of 0.81, and specificity of 0.66. There was no statistically significant difference between WHO CVD scores and Reti-WHO scores (P value = 0.842). The model exhibited a stronger correlation with vascular measurements, including mean and variance of arc and chord in arteries and veins. Comparing box plots and Vyshyvanka plots depicting changes in patients' CVD over the years, the Reti-WHO calculated by our model demonstrated greater stability compared to non-deep learning-based WHO CVD risk calculations. Conclusions: Our Reti-WHO scores demonstrated enhanced stability compared to WHO CVD scores calculated solely from the patient's physical indicators, suggesting that the features learned from retinal fundus photographs serve as robust indicators of CVD risk. However, the model may still exhibit false negatives in high-risk predictions, requiring ongoing research for refinement. Future directions involve validating the model across diverse populations and exploring multi-image and multi-modal approaches to enhance prediction accuracy.
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spelling doaj.art-2c263bb290a74e4ab64e63f6014afc1f2023-10-30T06:05:14ZengElsevierInformatics in Medicine Unlocked2352-91482023-01-0142101366Enhancing stability in cardiovascular disease risk prediction: A deep learning approach leveraging retinal imagesWeiyi Zhang0Zhen Tian1Fan Song2Pusheng Xu3Danli Shi4Mingguang He5School of Optometry, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaSchool of Optometry, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaSchool of Optometry, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, Guangzhou, 510060, ChinaSchool of Optometry, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China; Research Centre for SHARP Vision, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China; Corresponding author. School of Optometry, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaSchool of Optometry, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China; State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, Guangzhou, 510060, China; Research Centre for SHARP Vision, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaBackground: The retina provides valuable insights into vascular health within the body. Prior studies have demonstrated the potential of deep learning in predicting Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) risk using color fundus photographs. Purpose: To use fundus images to more consistently predict the World Health Organization (WHO) CVD score and to address the problem of year-to-year fluctuations associated with the traditional CVD risk score calculation. Methods: Utilizing 55,540 fundus images from 3,765 participants with 6-year follow-up data, we designed a DL model named Reti-WHO based on the Swin Transformer to predict CVD risk regression scores. Multiple regression and classification metrics such as coefficient of determination (R2-score), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), sensitivity and specificity were employed to assess the accuracy of the Reti-WHO. Significance differences between WHO CVD scores and Reti-WHO scores were also assessed. Vessel measurements were employed to interpret the model and evaluate the association between Reti-WHO and vascular conditions. Results: The deep learning model achieved good classification and regression metrics on the validation set, with an R2-score of 0.503, MAE of 1.58, sensitivity of 0.81, and specificity of 0.66. There was no statistically significant difference between WHO CVD scores and Reti-WHO scores (P value = 0.842). The model exhibited a stronger correlation with vascular measurements, including mean and variance of arc and chord in arteries and veins. Comparing box plots and Vyshyvanka plots depicting changes in patients' CVD over the years, the Reti-WHO calculated by our model demonstrated greater stability compared to non-deep learning-based WHO CVD risk calculations. Conclusions: Our Reti-WHO scores demonstrated enhanced stability compared to WHO CVD scores calculated solely from the patient's physical indicators, suggesting that the features learned from retinal fundus photographs serve as robust indicators of CVD risk. However, the model may still exhibit false negatives in high-risk predictions, requiring ongoing research for refinement. Future directions involve validating the model across diverse populations and exploring multi-image and multi-modal approaches to enhance prediction accuracy.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352914823002125Cardiovascular diseaseRetinal imagingArtificial intelligenceRisk estimation
spellingShingle Weiyi Zhang
Zhen Tian
Fan Song
Pusheng Xu
Danli Shi
Mingguang He
Enhancing stability in cardiovascular disease risk prediction: A deep learning approach leveraging retinal images
Informatics in Medicine Unlocked
Cardiovascular disease
Retinal imaging
Artificial intelligence
Risk estimation
title Enhancing stability in cardiovascular disease risk prediction: A deep learning approach leveraging retinal images
title_full Enhancing stability in cardiovascular disease risk prediction: A deep learning approach leveraging retinal images
title_fullStr Enhancing stability in cardiovascular disease risk prediction: A deep learning approach leveraging retinal images
title_full_unstemmed Enhancing stability in cardiovascular disease risk prediction: A deep learning approach leveraging retinal images
title_short Enhancing stability in cardiovascular disease risk prediction: A deep learning approach leveraging retinal images
title_sort enhancing stability in cardiovascular disease risk prediction a deep learning approach leveraging retinal images
topic Cardiovascular disease
Retinal imaging
Artificial intelligence
Risk estimation
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352914823002125
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AT pushengxu enhancingstabilityincardiovasculardiseaseriskpredictionadeeplearningapproachleveragingretinalimages
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